MATLAB: Do I get a bus error when I delete the MEX-file in MATLAB 6.5 (R13) on Mac OSX

Question

Why do I get a bus error when I delete my MEX-file in MATLAB 6.5 (R13) on Mac OSX?

I created a MEX-file from yprime.c:

cd([matlabroot '\extern\examples\mex'])
mex yprime.c
yprime(1,1:4)

Now, if I try to delete yprime.mexmac, I get a bus error:

delete yprime.mexmac

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Bus error detected at Fri Aug 30 17:03:55 2002
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Configuration:
   MATLAB Version:   6.5.0.181392 (R13)
   Operating System: Darwin 5.4 Darwin Kernel Version 5.4: Wed Apr 10 09:27:47 PDT 2002; root:xnu/xnu-201.19.3.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC  Power Macintosh
   Window System:    The XFree86 Project, Inc (40200000), display :0.0
   Current Visual:   0x22 (class 4, depth 24)
   Virtual Machine:  Java is not enabled
   r0 = 00245000   r8 = bfffb800  r16 = 00000000  r24 = bfffb804
   r1 = bfffb750   r9 = bfffb804  r17 = 00000000  r25 = bfffb800
   r2 = bfffbce0  r10 = 00245268  r18 = 00000000  r26 = bfffb7fc
   r3 = 00245388  r11 = 00000004  r19 = 00000000  r27 = bfffb7f8
   r4 = 4114b410  r12 = 41112d4c  r20 = 00000000  r28 = 00000000
   r5 = 4114b47c  r13 = 00000000  r21 = 00000000  r29 = 00000005
   r6 = 00245370  r14 = 00000000  r22 = 00000000  r30 = 000ffd00
   r7 = bfffb7fc  r15 = 00000000  r23 = 00000000  r31 = 4110da00
   pc = 4110da60   sp = 00033d00  psw = 0000d030   cr = 44000280
   lr = 4110da00  xer = 00000008  ctr = 41112d4c   mq = 00000000
   vrsave = 00000000
 Stack Trace:
 dyld: /devel/archive/R13/fcs/ship/unix/install/all/bin/mac/MATLAB dead lock (dyld operation attempted in a thread already doing a dyld operation)

Answer 1

This problem is due to the way libraries are dynamically loaded on the Mac.

As a workaround, please make sure to clear a MEX-file from memory before deleting it. For example:

clear yprime.mexmac
delete yprime.mexmac